By Jeremiah Stettler
The Salt Lake Tribune
SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah — Salt Lake County’s bad apples are growing even more rotten, according to crime data released Tuesday.
Felony offenders are booking more beds at the county jail this year than last — a surge in serious offenders that District Attorney Lohra Miller hopes will persuade county leaders to pump an extra $3 million into her department next year.
The population of felony-facing inmates — when compared to the jail’s misdemeanor miscreants - rose to 41 percent for men and 45 percent for women this year, up from 17 percent and 18 percent last year, respectively.
Then again, Sheriff Jim Winder says he also is releasing more low-level inmates than ever because of overcrowding. Naturally, “that would change the demographics.”
“We are turning away everyone but serious offenders,” he said.
Still, the county seems to be “trending up” in crime, Winder said. Some of that, he believes, accounts for the rising number of felons in the county jail.
The latest statistics come as Miller makes ready for a massive budget request that includes about three dozen new employees — including nine prosecutors, a public-information officer and a coordinator for domestic-violence warrants — and a $750,000 initiative to move the District Attorney’s Office from paper to electronic files.
“When you see the severity of crime increasing,” Miller said, “it means there is something broken in the criminal-justice system that we need to fix.”
County Councilman Jeff Allen allied himself with the first-year district attorney, saying he has “serious concerns” about rising crime. The new data suggest a need for reform.
“It is justification for giving both the D.A.'s Office and the Sheriff’s Office all the resources they need to attack these problems,” he said.
Until this summer, the county balked at providing more jail beds for its expanding inmate population, hoping to encourage alternatives to incarceration such as ankle monitors, day-reporting centers and drug-treatment programs.
The County Council agreed — albeit reluctantly — to open 128 unused beds at the South Salt Lake jail to relieve overcrowding that forced the Sheriff’s Office in June to absolve the sentences of more than a dozen female inmates.
County leaders continue to push for punishments beyond bars, but say they won’t let philosophy get in the way of public safety — if it, indeed, comes to that.
“This conversation isn’t about money,” said Councilman Mark Crockett, acknowledging the county’s previous penny-pinching. “We’ll do what we need to do.”
Councilman Jim Bradley isn’t so sure it has come to that.
“They’re not sounding the alarm,” he said, “or they would have done it in a much greater fashion.”
Instead, Bradley said he will have to digest the data before making any decisions about how to attack the problem financially.
“Let’s find out what’s really behind those numbers,” he said. “Then we can make an assessment on what we can do, if anything, to address those problems.
“It may not be to put more money into the D.A.'s Office. It may be to put more money into alternatives for incarceration.”
Copyright 2007 Salt Lake Tribune